Public Employee Press

Union housing fair: Key to homeownership

Sisters and co-workers, husbands and wives house-hunted at the union June 7 as DC 37 opened its doors to over 500 members at its Municipal Employees Housing Program housing fair.

“We made this our first stop after reading about the program in the PEP,” said Local 1549 member Timothy Brown. He and his wife, Yajaira, want to buy their first home through DC 37’s housing program. At the after-work fair, they found information on mortgages, grants, realtors, home inspectors, insurers and available rental and co-op apartments, condominiums and private homes.

Local 371 co-workers Francine Martin, Marie Germain and Georgette Robinson learned about grants and properties. “After house hunting for two years,” Martin said, “it would be nice to find a home I can afford with my budget.”

MEHP is the first and most comprehensive housing initiative in the nation to unite a union with city agencies — the Housing Authority and the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development — and a nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Housing Services. It offers grants through FirstHome and mortgages from a dozen participating banks and lenders.

“Our housing program is helping members meet the challenge of finding decent and affordable homes in one of the most expensive cities in the world,” said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, who founded the program. “I am pleased so many of our members are using MEHP as a key to achieving the American dream of home ownership,” she said.

MEHP also offers refinancing and foreclosure prevention, federal Section 8 grants and permanent housing in city Housing Authority developments for homeless union families. The program provides counseling, credit repair, savings plans and a 5 percent set-aside lottery preference for rental apartments.

“This is an amazing opportunity that city employees should take advantage of,” said Local 2627 member William Cabezas.

More than 4,000 DC 37 members have participated in some aspect of the MEHP program, said DC 37 Assistant Associate Director Henry Garrido. The average qualified member receives about $20,000 in mortgage assistance and grants that go toward down payment or closing costs.

“I moved away to Arizona after 9-11; now I want to move back,” said retiree Eileen Allison, who hopes to buy a condo through MEHP. “I’m a New Yorker. This is home.”

— Diane S. Williams